How to prepare an explosion protection document
technique
Tadeusz Piotrowski – Institute of Industrial Organic Chemistry, Warsaw; Wojciech Domański
– Central Institute for Labour Protection – National Research Institute, Warsaw
Please cite as: CHEMIK 2012, 66, 1, 31-40
Introduction
Over the recent years (since the first decree of the Minister of
Economy, Labour and Social Policy of 29 May 2003 on minimum
requirements for improving the safety and health protection of
workers potentially at risk from explosive atmospheres /rozporządzenie
Ministra Gospodarki, Pracy i Polityki Społecznej z dnia 29 maja 2003 r.
w sprawie minimalnych wymagań dotyczących bezpieczeństwa i higieny
pracy pracowników zatrudnionych na stanowiskach pracy, na których
może wystąpić atmosfera wybuchowa/ [9] was set up and amended
by the Minister of Economy in 2006 [10]), many publications have
been covering a subject of an explosion protection document (being
increasingly referred to as the EPD in short). However, many of
these publications and conference papers, such as for example
references [11, 12], duplicated the main requirements presented
in the above mentioned legal acts. They indicated that, first of all,
such a document should include descriptions of organisational and
technical actions undertaken by an employer in order to achieve
the following:
1. The prevention of the formation of the explosive atmospheres; and
if this is unlikely, the aim of eliminating the ignition sources.
2. The application of measures to minimise the effects of an explosion
in order to provide the safety and health protection of the
workers.
In accordance with § 5. 1. of the above decree, “The employer is in
possession of the explosion protection document and keeps it up to
date on regular basis”, and further:
2. The explosion protection document, hereinafter referred to as “the
document” should include:
• The information on the identification of explosive atmospheres and
an explosion risk assessment.
• The information on adequate measures taken against the explosion
hazards elaborated in the form of a Table.
• The list of potentially explosive workplaces along with their
classifications.
• The declaration that workplaces and work equipment, as well
as protecting and warning devices are designed, operated and
maintained with due regard for safety.
For that reason, the measures were predominantly limited to
a more detailed analysis of the above requirements, while other
recommendations spread at various places of the decree were
neglected. Also little attention was paid to create a uniform specimen
of the EPD or present (recommend) the methods of assessing the
hazard and risk of explosion since the legislator did not formulate any
recommendations or suggestions about this issue.
The European Commission imposed the necessity to amend the
Polish law in the scope of the full implementation of the requirements
of Directive 1999/92/EC [13]. As a consequence, the above
mentioned legal acts were replaced by a new decree of the Minister
of Economy of 8 July 2010 on minimum requirements for improving
the safety and health protection of workers potentially at risk from
explosive atmospheres [14]. This legal act is much more expanded
in comparison with the previous ones. It transfers all requirements
36 •
of Directive 1999/92/EC into the Polish legal status. But it still does
not specify many crucial executive elements – they were to be
included in the guide entitled: “Non-binding Guide of Good Practice
for implementing of the European Parliament and Council Directive
1999/92/EC on minimum requirements for improving the safety
and health protection of workers potentially at risk from explosive
atmospheres” elaborated by the European Commission DG for
Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities in 2003 [15].
According to the authors of this paper, this guide is of poor quality
and little usefulness in Polish conditions regarding the needs and
expectations of industrial companies, particularly small and medium
enterprises.
Guides for employers
Two guides dedicated to the employers from enterprises with
workplaces of a potentially explosive atmosphere have been worked
out under the research and development project No. 5.R.07 within
the framework of the Multi-annual Programme “Improving safety
and working conditions” [16] co-ordinated by the Central Institute
for Labour Protection – National Research Institute in order to find
a solution for this difficult situation. The first guide is entitled “How
to work out an explosion protection document at the workplace”;
and the second one “Technical guidelines. Methods of assessing
the hazard and risk of an explosion and anti-explosion protection
measures.”
The layout of the first guide shows how to prepare the EPD step
by step in conformity with the proposed framework of this document.
Moreover, every point of this guide explains which piece of information
and in what form should be placed in this document. The framework
of this document standardizes its content and the sequence of
providing technical and organisational information required by law. The
requirements are placed at various places of this legal act. For ease of
use, every point of the guide includes a reference mark corresponding
to the section, paragraph or point of the decree of the Minister of
Economy from 2010. [14].
This guide also contains such helpful annexes as: a glossary of used
terms, a list of the EU and Polish legal acts being in force, a list of the
most important PN-EN standards on the assessment of the explosion
hazard and protection against it, form specimens, checklists, lists as
well as statements and declarations of the employer. It is also richly
illustrated with pictures and tables containing helpful data.
The proposed specimen of the EPD framework (Tab.1) is divided
into 3 main parts:
Part. 1. General information (includes statements and deadlines re-
lated to the EPD).
Part 2 Detailed information (includes an assessment of the hazard
and risk of explosion as well as ways of prevention and pro-
tection against the effects of an explosion), and
Part. 3 Information and supplementary documents (include reports,
certificates, confirmations and procedures that can be only
presented in the form of lists, without attaching them to the
guide).
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 Table 1
The framework draft of the explosion protection document
THE SPECIMEN OF THE FRAMEWORK FOR THE EXPLOSION
PROTECTION DOCUMENT.
PART 1
GENERAL INFORMATION
1. THE EMPLOYER’S STATEMENT THAT THE WORKPLACES, WORK EQUIP-
MENT, INCLUDING WARNING DEVICES, ARE DESIGNED, OPERATED AND
MAINTAINED WITH DUE REGARD FOR SAFETY (§ 7.3 POINT 3a OF THE
DECREE)
2. THE EMPLOYER’S STATEMENT THAT WORK EQUIPMENT CONFORMS TO
THE PROVISIONS OF SEPARATE REGULATIONS ON MINIMUM REQUIRE-
MENTS FOR THE SAFETY AND HEALTH PROTECTION REGARDING THE
USE OF MACHINES BY THE WORKERS DURING NORMAL OPERATIONS
(§ 7.3 POINT 3b OF THE DECREE)
3. THE EMPLOYER’S STATEMENT ON ASSESSING THE RISK OF POTENTIAL
OCCURRENCE OF THE EXPLOSIVE ATMOSPHERE (§ 7.3 POINT 3c OF THE
DECREE)
4. THE LIST OF POTENTIALLY EXPLOSIVE ATMOSPHERES AND THEIR
CLASSIFICATION INTO ZONES ON THE BASIS OF THE LIKELIHOOD
AND DURATION OF THE OCCURRENCE OF EXPLOSIVE ATMOSPHERES
(§ 7.3 POINT 2 OF THE DECREE)
5. INFORMATION ON DEADLINES FOR REGULAR INSPECTIONS OF
APPLIED PROTECTION MEASURES REFERRED TO IN PART 2 POINT 4 OF
THIS DOCUMENT (§ 4.3. OF THE DECREE)
6. THE EMPLOYER’S STATEMENT ON ENSURING SAFETY AND ADEQUATE
SUPERVISION OVER THEIR WORKERS AND CONCISE DESCRIPTION OF
MEASURES THAT HAVE BEEN TAKEN IN ORDER TO FULFIL THE PROVI-
SIONS OF THE DECREE AND TO LIMIT DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS OF THE
EXPLOSION (§ 7.3 POINT 1, § 4.1 AND § 4.6 OF THE DECREE)
PART 2
DETAILED INFORMATION
1. THE ASSESSMENT OF EXPLOSION AND FIRE RISKS
1.1. IDENTIFICATION OF USED FLAMMABLE SUBSTANCES AND THEIR PHY-
SICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES
1.1.1. Basic physical properties.
1.1.2. Flammable properties.
1.1.3. Explosive properties in the mixture with air.
1.1.4. Other possible hazardous properties: toxic, detrimental, oxidising, and
corrosive properties, etc.
1.1.5. The classification of used substances and mixtures according to the
REACH regulation.
1.2. THE CONCISE DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS IN WHICH THE EXPLO-
SIVE ATMOSPHERE MAY OCCUR WITH USED FLAMMABLE SUBSTANCES
1.3. THE CONCISE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORKPLACE WHERE THE EXPLO-
SIVE ATMOSPHERE MAY OCCUR
1.3.1. The description of installations, apparatuses, and equipment.
1.3.2. The description of normal operations.
1.3.3. The description of installations, substances used, processes and their
interaction.
2. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPLOSION RISK
2.1. THE DEFINITION OF REPRESENTATIVE EXPOSURE SCENARIOS
2.1.1. Exposure scenario No. X.
2.1.1.1. Working people (own workers, subcontractors).
2.1.1.2. Consumers, visitors, students, apprentices, inspectors, etc.
3. THE ASSESSMENT OF THE EXPLOSION RISK
3.1. THE PERFORMANCE OF THE COMPREHENSIVE RISK ASSESSMENT OF
THE POTENTIAL EXPLOSIVE ATMOSPHERE THAT MAY OCCUR AT
THE WORKPLACES
3.1.1. Assessing the likelihood and duration of the explosive atmosphere.
3.1.2. Defining the quantities of the explosive atmosphere (this can be done
on the basis of separate regulations, including the regulations on fire
protection or technical specifications).
3.1.3. Assessing the likelihood of the occurrence and activation of the ignition
sources, including the electrostatic discharges.
3.1.4. Assessing the impact of the installations and used substances, processes
and their mutual interactions on the likelihood of the occurrence of the
explosive atmosphere.
3.1.5. Assessing the scale of the anticipated effects of the explosion.
3.1.6. Assessing the workplaces which are or can be connected via openings to
other places in which the explosive atmosphere may occur.
3.1.7. Calculating/assessing the level of the explosion risk.
3.1.8. Accepting/reducing the level of the explosion risk.
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technique
4. PREVENTION OF THE EXPLOSION AND PROTECTION AGAINST
ITS EFFECTS
4.1. TECHNICAL MEASURES
4.1.1. The description of preventive measures against the formation of the
explosive atmosphere.
4.1.2. The description of methods of avoiding the ignition of the explosive
atmosphere, in particular including measures and methods of antistatic
protection intended for workers and technical appliances.
4.1.3. The description of methods of mitigating the detrimental effect of
the explosion, along with the description of the personal protection
measures in order to provide the safety and health protection of working
people.
4.1.4. The description of supplementary measures against the propagation of
the explosion.
4.1.5. The employer’s information on deadlines for regular inspections of
applied measures against the explosion and protective measures against
its effects.
4.2. ORGANISATIONAL MEASURES
4.2.1. Internal regulations, safety policy of the company, quality policy, etc.
4.2.2. Written instructions: general technical instructions, the Health and Safety
at Work, subject instructions for normal operations performed in poten-
tially explosive atmospheres.
4.2.3. Written permits to perform particularly hazardous activities in potentially
explosive atmospheres.
4.2.4. Training in the safety and health protection concerning the protection
against the explosion.
4.2.5. The co-ordination of operations performed by the subcontractors –
appointing
a person in charge
4.2.6. Verifying the general level of safety at the workplace where the explosive
atmosphere may occur, in the scope of the protection system against the
explosion before it is used for the first time - appointing the verifier.
4.2.7. Appointing a person responsible for issuing the permits to perform
particularly hazardous activities.
4.2.8. The inspection of devices and the supervision over the equipment and
performed activities.
PART 3
INFORMATION AND SUPPLEMENTARY DOCUMENTS
1. The reports on classification, site plans of the potentially explosive zones,
marking the zones and escape routes.
2. The reports on the inspections of appliances (reviews, maintenance, start-up,
standstill) and the supervision over the equipment and performed activities.
3. The verification report on the general safety at the workplace (have all the
conditions necessary to ensure the safety been fulfilled and who is in charge of
the verification?).
4. Confirmation of completing training and courses- statements signed by the
workers.
5. Certificates of competence and professional licenses of the workers.
6. Other supplementary documents (e.g. change cards to the documentation,
checklists, etc.).
7. The employer’s declaration on ensuring the safety and adequate supervision
over their workers at the workplaces where the explosive atmosphere may
occur in quantities that endanger the safety and health of the workers by
implementing the adequate measures necessary to achieve the goals referred
to in part 2 point 3 of this Document.
8. Procedures and escape plans containing hazard warning signals or signs.
The EPD is divided into three parts in order to collect and arrange
many pieces of information required by the decree [14] to create
consistent subject sections. Regarding official issues, the employer’s
statements on taking necessary steps required by the law, lists of
existing places in which the explosive atmosphere may occur along with
their classifications into zones (number and scale of hazards) as well as
short and concise description of protection measures are the most
crucial elements, according to the authors. Deadlines for inspections
of applied prevention/anti-explosion measures and updating the EPD
are other important elements. The general information is contained
at the beginning of the document (part 1). The information presents
the general level of potential hazards and protections that exist in a
particular enterprise.
The main part of the EPD (part 2) contains such information on the
assessment of the explosion hazard level as: the identification of used
dangerous substances, a concise description of processes in progress, a
description of the workplaces where potentially explosive atmosphere
• 37
 may occur, and the presentation of all necessary elements to conduct
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the assessment of the explosion risk. The latter pieces of information
may serve as a separate study and be quoted in the tabular form with
reference to the original document. It is important to select a method
of the risk assessment for applied types of technologies and for the level
of technical complexity of operated process equipment and justify it.
The suggestions on “recommended methods of risk assessment” can
be considered during this selection.
A more detailed description of the applied technical protection
measures against explosion and protection against its effects comprises
an important element of this part of the document. This description
should particularly refer to the prevention of the formation of the
explosive atmospheres and the elimination of effective ignition sources
which may occur at the analysed workplaces (with special regards to
discharges of static electricity). Further in this part of the document,
there are methods of limiting harmful and potential effects of
explosions. The organisational measures for the prevention/protection
against the explosion (regulations, instructions, permissions, training
courses, practical exercises, supervision, marking, co-ordination
of subcontractors’ actions, etc.) taken in the enterprise should be
presented in this part of the EPD. The second part of the EPD illustrates
in details the level of potential hazards and protections functioning in
a given enterprise, the training level of workers in the scope of anti-
explosion protection, as well as measures taken by the supervision and
the control of current operations.
And the third part of the EPD may contain the information confirming
previously described data on hazards, classifications of potentially
explosive zones, applied technical and organisational measures, training
courses and other important data. It is recommended to gather the
above information in the form of a list containing also documents of
the enterprise, with references to a place (department) of their storage
and possibly people in charge of those documents.
The employer has a very important task of making a decision
on appointing a person responsible for drawing up and verifying
the EPD. According to [4], “a person (or people) with at least the
fundamental knowledge on anti-explosion and process safety
should be an author of the explosion protection document. Such a
person should become sufficiently acquainted with a technological
process – used substances, physical parameters, apparatus,
possible physical and chemical changes and unit operations. If
a person responsible for the EPD is not employed in a particular
production, storage or another department for which this document
is being prepared, they should closely co-operate with technological
services and production supervision in order to gain the sufficient
knowledge to identify as many hazards, emission sources, effective
ignition sources and other related issues as possible”. This is absolutely
reasonable statement. If the enterprise lacks people with such skills
– the task of preparing the EPD could be contracted to a professional
consulting company employing experts in fire/explosion protection.
The same criteria should be applied while appointing a person/people
reviewing and/or verifying drafts of that document.
The employer themselves, i.e. the owner of the enterprise or the
plant manager appointed by them and, in larger companies, the CEO
or the technical manager – depending on rules adopted by a given
enterprise – should approve that document.
Every single person working at workplaces classified into potentially
explosive zones as well as technical, technological and production
supervision units in a given enterprise should read the prepared and
approved EPD. The special emphasize should be put on controlling
those workers by their immediate superiors.
The second guide (“Technical guideline...”) is a kind of a handbook
providing fundamental facts on combustion and explosion. This document
deals with the classification of potentially explosive zones, detailed
description of various types of ignition sources (with a comprehensive part
38 •
on electrostatics), processes of the formation of explosive atmospheres
(gas, vapour or dust) along with the place of their occurrence and their
duration. It also mentions technical and organizational methods of
preventing the formation of explosive atmospheres and ways of avoiding
their ignition, including the methods of limiting the effects of an explosion.
The requirements on protection equipment and systems are presented
there. The guide describes the methods of assessing the hazard and risk
of an explosion as well as the level of the explosion risk and recommends
selected methods to prepare the EPD in various situations. Moreover,
it includes the risk acceptance criterion for explosion with the boundary
value of 10-4 per loss of life / capita / year that has been proposed by the
implementers of the project [16] in order to adopt it in Poland while
analysing the risk for the needs of the explosion protection document.
Recommended procedures
The recommended procedures mean the selected methods of
assessing the hazard and risk of an explosion at workplaces presented in
“Technical guidelines” as suggested methods to be used in practice for
preparing the EPD. They are divided into two groups. The first group
is recommended for simple installation systems, in small and medium
enterprises (SME) that use flammable chemical substances (predominantly
solvents) in their processes. This is a group of methods involving the
so called ”risk matrix” as the main tool for the final assessment. They
are simple expert methods based on the well-known PHA, Risk Score
methods and/or tabular lists of assessments. These methods can be easily
performed because they are not time-consuming, do not require the
staff with professional training or the detailed data on the probability of
the failure of the equipment and protection system.
The second group includes methods that are recommended to be
used in more complex process installations operating in larger companies.
They are semi-quantitative methods: the Event Tree Analysis and the
Layers of Protection Analysis. They are more time-consuming and
require the professionally trained technical staff. These methods involve
the probability data on typical failure events that occur in the process
industry and the data on reliability of used equipment and protections.
But, in turn, the calculated levels of the risks of an explosion are more
credible and accurate. This is crucial for the installations characterised by
a high level of technical integration and complexity.
This guide heavily focuses on hazards caused by the electrostatic
discharges – one of the most common in the industrial practices and
very effective ignitions sources of explosive atmospheres.
The detailed draft of the emergency scenario illustrating the
elements of the development of incidents that result in the explosion
at the workplaces have been elaborated for ease of conducting the
assessment of the hazard and risk of explosion.
This draft contains all elements that compose the course of the
explosion and so called “safety barriers”, which - if applied for the
installation - may break the sequence of undesirable events and protect
it against the explosion or mitigate its possible effects. At the same time,
the “pre-initial, conditional and initial events” classified into 5 subject
groups play an important role because they initiate a chain of reactions
that potentially lead to failure and explosions of diversified scale (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. A sequence of events creating a chain of events that leads
to the explosion at the workplace. It enables the formation
of the scenario of explosion.
B1–B5 – safety barriers (prevention of the explosion and protection against its effects)
nr 1/2012 • tom 66
 An algorithm for emergency scenarios (Fig. 2) that result in an
explosion at the workplace was worked out on the basis of this diagram.
The algorithm uses so called “secondary databases” supporting the
simple software – “EmergScen” (Fig. 3) [17].
Fig. 2. The algorithm for emergency scenario that results in
an explosion at the workplace, supported by secondary databases
Fig. 3. The main screen of EmergScen programme to create
the explosion scenarios according to [17]
The programme is designed to provide support in collecting data
necessary to work out such scenarios in the process of preparing the
EPD. Five different types of secondary databases were selected and
described as below:
Database 1. It contains a list of types of incidents in the industry as well
as the events of the following type: initial events (IE), pre-
initial events (PreIE), conditional events (CE).
Database 2..It contains the database on properties of dangerous
materials / media used.
Database 3. It contains a list of potential sources of ignition according
to PN-EN 1127-1:2009.
Database 4.It contains data on failures and reliability data of industrial
equipment.
Database 5.It contains a list of protections – safety barriers and their
classifications, standards, organisational procedures.
nr 1/2012 • tom 66
Those databases are in the form of lists or a wide range of links to
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various kinds of ready databases available in the Internet (for example
free of charge, log-in or chargeable databases).
Summary
Over 8 years have passed since the first Polish legal act
implementing the requirements of Directive 1999/92/EC into Polish
legal status was established in 2003. Meanwhile, 2 amendments were
adopted. At first, a small amendment to the decree [9] was adopted
in 2006. And in 2010, a new, extended scope of the decree that
completely implements all details of the requirements of the above
directive was adopted.
Still, the employers of small and medium industrial enterprises
know little about the mentioned legal acts, and particularly about their
content. For many entrepreneurs, that decree is still a novelty posing
significant problems of understanding its expressions and fulfilling its
requirements for improving safety of workers at their workplaces,
where the potentially explosive atmosphere may occur.
The small entrepreneurs have considerable difficulties in meeting
the requirements for assessing the explosion risk at the workplace.
This is a key element of any single EPD required by the decree of
the Minister of Economy. However, the legislator has not specified
any method to assess the risk, not mentioning any suggestions or
recommendations. The official specimen of that document (EPD) has
not been determined as well. So-far elaborated guides address those
problems and help in preparing the adequate EPD even by small
enterprises themselves. The standardisation of the framework of the
EPD provides its uniform and transparent form that is particularly
favourable for the inspections carried out by the State Labour
Inspectorate and National Fire Service. It is advantageous to both
the entrepreneurs and inspection bodies.
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realizowany w ramach Programu Wieloletniego „Poprawa bezpieczeństwa
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Tadeusz PIOTROWSKI - Ph.D., graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry
at the University of Warsaw (1975). He completed his doctoral studies with
honours at the Institute of Inorganic Technology and Mineral Fertilizers at
the Wrocław University of Technology (1993). At present, he is working at
the Institute of Industrial Organic Chemistry in Warsaw. Research interests:
physics and chemistry of combustion processes; research on properties of
hazardous substances in use, their presence on the market and in transport;
research and evaluation of process hazards that may occur in the chemical
industry (including risks of explosion and fire). He is an author of more than 60
articles published in scientific and technical journals and a co-author of several
dozen papers and posters presented at national and international conferences
and published in conference materials.
Wojciech Domański - Ph.D., (Eng), graduated from the Faculty of
Chemistry at the Warsaw University of Technology (1973). He completed
his doctoral studies at the Central Institute for Labour Protection (1999).
He was awarded for the research by the Minister of Labour and Social
Policy and the National Labour Inspector. At present, he is working at
the Central Institute for Labour Protection – National Research Institute.
Research interests: threats of chemical factors used in the processing of
rubber compounds, threats of chemical factors in electroplating plants,
threats of explosive atmospheres, safe storage and transport of hazard-
ous goods. He is an author of monographs, 2 chapters in monographs,
82 articles published in scientific and technical journals, an author and a
co-author of 33 papers and posters presented at national and international
conferences, and an author of 15 Polish standards.
40 •
Polish Noble Prizes for quantum optics,
energy and periodontal disease
Professors Tomasz Giaro, Jan Potempa, Maciej Lewenstein and
Elżbieta Frąckowiak received this year’s Foundation for Polish Science
(FNP) Prize for works on the doctrines of law, periodontal disease,
quantum optics, energy storage.
This year’s winner in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences
was Prof. Tomasz Giaro of the Faculty of Law and Administration at the
University of Warsaw, for an interdisciplinary analysis of the category
of truth in the doctrines of law from antiquity to the present, opening
new prospects for understanding of the law as one of the foundations of
European civilization. Prof. Giaro was awarded for his work “Römische
Rechtswahrheiten. Ein Gedankenexperiment”, on the criterion of truth
as a tool for shaping the legal norm. “The arguments the truthfulness or
falsity were part of the jurisprudence discourse from ancient Rome to
the modern German doctrine. Codifications made on a wider scale in
the nineteenth century, however, shifted the weight of law creation from
science to legislation. Since the legislator +orders, not discusses+, the
criterion of truth in law is called into question. Prof. Giaro approaches this
question in a broad analysis of ancient sources and later European legal
tradition, using the method of thought experiment. Periodontal tissue
inflammation, or periodontal disease, is one of the most common infectious
diseases. Affected persons are more susceptible to other diseases such as
cardiovascular diseases and rheumatoid arthritis. It is now known that a
relatively small group of bacteria present in the bacterial plaque below
the gum line is responsible for the pathological changes in periodontal
tissue. Prof. Potempa’s research concerns the role of bacteria. The winner
and his colleagues isolated and characterized seven protein-degrading
enzymes produced by this bacterium (including so-called gingipain). He
proved that gingipains are a key factor in the development of periodontitis
and demonstrated that they are responsible for a disorder of the body’s
immune response, where instead of eliminating the bacteria the body turns
against its own tissues. Prof. Maciej Lewenstein of the Institut de Ciencies
Fotoniques (ICFO) in Castelldefels and Institucio Catalana de Recerca i
Estudis Avancats in Barcelona was awarded in the field of mathematics,
physics and engineering for achievements in the area of quantum
optics and the physics of ultra-cold gases. In the last decade, Professor
Lewenstein focused on studies of strongly correlated ultracold quantum
gases. Quantum simulators allow to understand the complex quantum
physics of many-body systems, and such phenomena as superconductivity
or superfluidity. Research of Prof. Lewenstein also concern matter wave
interferometry and its potential applications in precise time and frequency
measurement. Professor Lewenstein is considered a world leader in the
field of modern physics. Contributing to its development, he expands the
knowledge of the fundamental laws of nature. In the field of chemical and
materials sciences the FNP Council awarded Prof. Elzbieta Frąckowiak
from the Faculty of Chemical Technology, Poznń University of Technology.
She was recognised for her research on new materials, carbon composites
and their use for electrochemical energy storage and conversion. Carbon
materials developed by Prof. Frąckowiak include, in particular, carbon
nanotubes and their nanocomposites with conducting polymers and
oxides, nanotextural carbons and carbon composites enriched with
nitrogen, oxygen and iodine. They are the basis of technology used in
supercapacitors. Supercapacitors are devices with a high capacitance,
capable of quickly charging and discharging large power values. Their
uses include automotive industry (hybrid and electric cars), energy
(battery backup systems to stabilizing the power network) and mobile
devices. Their properties make them a possible partial alternative to fuels
responsible for the high carbon dioxide emissions.
(http://www.naukawpolsce.pap.pl, 15.12.2011)
nr 1/2012 • tom 66